Thursday, February 27, 2014

What are, in your mind,
two unique or interesting or different or noteworthy ways Instructional
Design/Technology has been used in business & industry that you believe
could be usefully applied to your own professional work? Explain.

In
business and industry, instructional Design/Technology has had to be more aware
of the changing social culture factors that prevail in our country. Like business,
care should be taken when designing technology in education that will not
offend groups of people, but also to try to incorporate things that will make
people from different cultures feel more at ease. In education idea of culture
must be expanded to include poverty. Just as an environmental analysis may be
done to remove cultural elements and localize the instruction, students deserve
the same consideration in order to more accurately assess a given task.

Another
way instructional design/technology used in business that could have a place in
education is with advanced evaluation techniques. By using this evaluation
method incorporating stories, teachers could get valuable feedback and evidence
that the training they received is making a difference. This model fits right
in with the data driven systems that are in place in education these days.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

As I read Chapter 14, the Development and Evolution of Human
Performance Improvement, I sometimes found myself thinking about my students in
this role and other times I thought about me and my colleagues. I recently sat
in on a data conference with my school principal to go over my students’ many
test scores as their success is a component of my evaluation process. I don’t
know how I feel about this whole process. I know some teachers who have been
skating by for a long time. But for the most part, the teachers I know are
professionals who care about their craft. I frequently hear, “Teaching is an
art! How do you evaluate that? How can business models be used as tools for
evaluation?” Whether we like it or not evaluations are in place and we have no
say in the matter.

In looking at figure 14.2 something jumped out at me. This
same something has been bugging me for the past couple of weeks. Our evaluation
is missing an incentive to do better in our job. What upper management sees as
an incentive is the sheer fact that we get to keep our job. I feel like some
hire-ups took this Human Performance Theory and cut out the parts that did not
work for them. I think if schools are going to use business models then they
should look at the whole model.

It is not my intent to start spouting off about not making
enough money, but knowing you are appreciated by your superiors goes a long way
to foster a community based on respect. I think more school systems should look
at adopting a full HPT plan. However, I do not believe it should be on the
backs of students in the form of merit pay. There has to be ways to show
teachers they are respected, valued, and encouraged to remain an active learner
for the sake of our students.

Mike Flanagan, State Superintendent for Michigan has an occasional podcast based on various topics affecting education.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Assume that
you are trying to teach learners how to calculate and compare the unit costs of
various sizes and/or brands of the same product. Select 3 of the theories,
describe the nature of the instructional activities that you would design if
you were adhering to that theory as you were planning the instruction.

Behavioral Learning Theory

The objective
in my lesson is to have students practice their new skill of calculating price
per ounce. The students will use an online game in which their goal is to get
the best price for the items on a shopping list. As students shop in the store
and place their items into their shopping cart either the item will drop
through the cart and a buzzer will sound indicating they picked the wrong brand
or a cha-ching sound will be heard and the item will stay in the cart. To make
sure the students didn’t just guess during their shopping trip, the students
will have to submit their price per ounce per item at the check-out.

By having a
response to the correct and incorrect answers, the students will receive
immediate feedback to reinforce their work. By adding the end component of
having to submit their price per ounce per item, hopefully it will deter
students from just dropping items into their carts and guessing.

Situated Learning Theory

The
objective in the lesson is for students to practice their new skill of
calculating price per ounce. Students will take on the role of the purchasing
manager for the local food bank in a computer simulated game. They will receive
a budget, shopping lists, and 5 stores to purchase the items on their shopping
lists. Their goal is to come in at or under budget.

Schema Theory and Cognitive Load

Students
will receive instruction on how to figure out price per ounce using an online
tutorial showing step by step how the calculation is performed. A narration
will follow an animated graphic for solving the equations. As the tutorial
progresses the student will have opportunities to interact and practice the
steps in a gradual process and progress to just the presentation of the problem.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

A.Describe at least three
possible reasons why the project had very little effect on the instructional
practices employed by the teachers. Each of the factors mention in this chapter
as to why earlier forms of instructional media ( i.e films, radio, television)
had very limited effects on instructional practices.

Like many practices in education, schools jump on board without making
sure all of the people involved in the execution of the new practice are willing,
equipped, and able to go along with the new idea. Teachers, whom typically end
up being the front men for the new idea, are not always invested in ensuring a
favorable outcome. Another factor may be the prevailing attitude of, “if it isn’t
broke, don’t fix it.” Change is difficult for many people. I am always very
impressed when I see a seasoned teacher light up at something new and
innovative. This is not a common attitude. Furthermore, when teachers feel like
they are forced to try something which is out of their comfort zone or requires
additional. Teaching is an art. No artist likes to be dictated to n how to
handle their medium.

B.Describe at least two
strategies that could have been employed to help mitigate the factors that you
think contributed to the minimal effect this project had on instructional
practices. Indicate why you think each of these strategies might have been
helpful.

First and foremost I think that
getting teachers on board early in the process of researching a new system is
important. Many teachers feel they are only called in after things have already
been decided, their opinions being only a taken into consideration for show. By
having teachers represented early on in the process shows a measure of good
faith and allows for meaningful input from those who will be on the front end
of implementing the new process.

Secondly, proper training of all
who will be using the new system offers more support. Many times a trickle down
method is used in training. A few people IT and some administrators get
trained, then, to save money they distribute the information to other staff.
Eventually, newcomers are left to fend for themselves. Yes, I am living it
right now!

Getting all the stakeholders
invested early and proper training can go a long way towards building confidence
in any new system.

Photo Sharing:

I have used different photo sharing sites. My first was Photobucket was used to share pictures of my knitting. Later I tried Flickr. I also use Picasa, by Google, to organize my pictures. It also has a feature allowing me to upload pictures and to share them. This made adding pictures to my blog very easy.